*** Official Sager NP8150/Clevo P150HM Owners Lounge ***

It would be good to check with your reseller or dealer and see what your best options are....
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Guys any idea which is the latest BIOS/EC version for Sager 8150?
I sent an email to their techsupport a couple of days ago but no answer.
thanks!

 

Update: Sager emailed me a pre-paid label and is having me return the laptop. They also agreed to extend my 30 day evaluation period to begin when they return the laptop to me. I'm pretty happy about this.

I do appreciate that Malibal has reps posting to this group. If things don't work out with Sager, I still like the machine and will probably buy from you guys.

Interesting about the power supply. I'm still suprised that the power supply they're using requires large heat sinks (I assume that's why it's so heavy). I thought supplies these days were active and so didn't need to passively discharge heat through a sink.

Oh well... I think of this as more of a portable desktop than a laptop... so I don't expect to be traveling with it as much as I might another machine...

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/416916-clevo-bios-thread.html

 

this is only for CLEVO.
Sager does not always have the same BIOS versions.
For example BIOS 1.01.12 was not approved by manufacturer but it was available for CLEVO.

 

Hey guys could I check how your trackpad buttons are for the P150/151 chassis?

My right button is quite a bit stiffer than the left side and it feels a bit strange because it seems to be catching on something when I release pressure off the button. So it goes like this - 1. Release partial finger pressure off button and it goes click and rises up slightly as though it is catching on something. 2. Release full pressure off button and it goes click again and rises back up to original position.

I know it seems to be a trivial matter but it does get annoying after awhile when you use the trackpad and you can feel the right click button catching on something before rising back up to original postion. Should this be normal? =/

 

now that you mentioned it, my right button does appear to be a little stiffer than my left. in 6 months with the machine, this is the first time i actually noticed it.

if what you have is similar to mine, it is indeed such a trivial matter. just be happy that you have a fully functioning machine and enjoy it

 

Haha yes you're right. Hope you're enjoying yours too

 

Mines the same, but i'd just assumed that was from general use rather than design.

 

this, and my galaxy s2 phone are the best pieces of technology ive ever bought.

 

I'm about to join you fellow P150HM owners UPS should have my machine here at 3pm EST. Good job MALIBAL.

 

^^^^Many here have a similar configuration. You should love it!
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great config. i see you have lots of ram, are you into video editing?

 

I'm also about to join you guys with a shiny new Clevo P150HM

i7-2760qm
Radeon 6970M 2Gb
Matte 95% gamut FHD screen which I hope will be all ten kinds of awesome
Op drv caddy + external CD/DVDRW

Salvaged from my roadkilled G51J
8Gb RAM (Definitely 2x4Gb Kingston Valueram about 1 month old. If I ever come across something that needs >8Gb I can got up to 12Gb with the 2x2Gb Samsung that came with the previous lappy but that would slow all ram to 1066)
80Gb X25M-G2

Will buy a proper storage HDD separately when I get around to it but for now an old 320Gb 5400rpm will do.

For now... The wait.

 

any solutions for the usb3.0 issue yet ?
the 2 usb ports on my 8150 is as good as dead
dying in the midst of file transfer/movie isnt a good thing to happen especially when you are watching a movie with peers

 

Thanks Larry! I got it yesterday but am just now playing with it.

I do some video. I mainly do music editing/recording. But the main reason for this laptop is because I needed a solid workstation for Android development that I can take to class.

It doesn't hurt that I can play games on ultra settings.

But can anyone chime in on my issue here"

 

I will be getting the 95% gamut matte display, instead of the glossy i used to have. I will probably be one of the few that actually used both, so I will be able to give some personal opinions on the panels.

Also, I might be getting a Killer 1103, I will benchmark some speed and range tests in comparison to the Intel 6300 for those who may be interested

 

very cool, this laptop and my android powered galaxy s2 are my favorite gadgets.
with regards to your pxe error, try removing your nic from the boot sequence

 

I develop some for the HTC Evo and I love it.

I got the pxe error taken care of.

But out of curiosity, how do you remove items from the boot sequence? I get the options to move things up and down, but not to completely remove.

 

I forgot the specific key, but try delete

 

So was there ever a consensus on this? I assume we are talking about using thermal pads versus diamond compound for the GPU RAM to heatsink thermal connection, right? My thought would be thermal compound wouldn't be thick enough to bridge the gap?

Or was the intention to scrape off the existing thermal compound on these little 3rd party Ebay heatsinks and use some new type of compound that's adhesive to stick them to the heatpipes and system RAM?

Thanks!

 

^^^^ Many are having excellent results in using just the stock thermal pads that come with this model and the ICD.

With the proper cleaning first and the application, all is good!

Application

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Guys,

anyone using the latest BIOS (1.01.14) for 8150?
Got it today from Sager (ISO format) and would like to flahs but not sure if there are problems with it or not.
Thanks

LE: flashed... everything works fine even though I have no idea what the changes are.

 

Welp, after lurking around here for over a month, I pulled the trigger and ordered from Malibal yesterday afternoon. It was really between them and Xotic PC as both had the same price for my build, but when I called to ask if I could order the OS without having it installed, Malibal was like "sure", but Xotic PC claimed they couldn't as there was some part of their process that required them to install it. A tiny thing, but it tipped the scales.

The one concern I have now is hoping I don't have the default color problems on the 95% matte screen like other owners have been posting about.

Otherwise, I've got some diamond compound and will be repasting myself. Then I plan to do some thermal tests and try those little heatsinks mentioned earlier in the thread. When I game I plan on using the cooling pad which will force air into the areas not affected by the internal CPU and GPU fans.

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.4-3.5GHz
Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B156HW01 V.4 95% NTSC Matte Display
Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM
Graphics Card: AMD® Radeon HD 6990M 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 120GB Intel® (510) SATA III 6Gb/s SSD2 Drive
Optical Drive Bay: 8X Multi DVD+/-R/RW RAM Dual-Layer Drive
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium; 64-bit
Wireless: Internal 802.11B/G/N LAN and Bluetooth Card
Cooling: Stock OEM Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU
Notebook Coolers: Cooler Master NotePal U3 Notebook Cooler
Accessories: Hard Drive Caddy For Optical Bay

 

There is an option for no OS in xoticpc, if I recall correctly? No need to call. Nice rig by the way, if I was getting an 8150 I'd have the same specs.

 

I think Operon is talking about purchasing the OS, but not having it installed - so that he can install it himself.

 

If you want to install your own OS, be it Windows 7 or Linux, you would go through the same process whether there was an OS already installed or the drive was clean...so what is the point of caring whether it was already installed or not?

 

Sorry if already where it was, I could not find. If it was, poke me, please. Is there a possibility independently return to the bios Sager from the Clevo bios?

 

I think it's one of two things, and neither of them are a knock on any of the resellers that sell Sager / Clevos.

First, many of us who are prospective sager buyers, are first-time buyersweary of preinstalled OS's having bloatware, trialware, crapware; in other words (insert expletive here). Due to companies (that will remain nameless ) engaging in these activities, people become weary of any company, even one that does clean installs by default, doing anything to their computer. Imagine if let's say for the past 10 years you've bought DELL, and every DELL you've bought from an inspiron 600m, to an xps 15, arrived with McAfee, trial software from Roxio, Google Toolbar, etc., and you as the end user had to make a fresh reformat just to get a desirable baseline. After a while, you'd either groan at the 2 to 4 (maybe more) hours that you had to spend to get to a workable, fresh, zero state... or you'd have to find a third-party application to get rid of this crapware. It boils down to conditioning and the subsequent "digital trauma" that ensues. There's just a joy in being "the first one" to put an OS in the system, be it Windows, Linux, UNIX, whatever.

The second reason comes for more of an enterprise / educational environment where either the computer's owner would get a bevy of pre-installed software and be put onto a Windows 7 Enterprise-like atmosphere where the computer by default would boot into the business' environment for whatever mission-critical applications are needed, and a secondary-boot space would be made for the person's personal use (if allowed under corporate policy). For educational users (such as myself), we may get a DEEP discount from a sweetheart deal through Microsoft (For example, Queens College allows its students, staff, and faculty to get Win7 Ultimate for about $80, instead of the $190 upcharge that Sager renders). For this market, it's a matter of economy. We're not disparaging sellers, but we're working on an economic rationale: If I have a connection that allows me to save 60%, but provide full AND LEGAL licensure, then why not employ such a move? that $110 or so I saved can be used in the "options goodies" for thing such as a Hybrid HDD instead of an HDD, longer warranty, a better screen, or even towrds an uprated CPU or GPU (to name a few options).

At the end of the day, it boils down to the fact consumers may have personal, business, and economic reasons for wanting to put the OS on themselves. It is by no means a knock on the good Sager / Clevo dealers on this forum (PNB, Xotic, Myth, Malibal, to name a few); but it comes down to consumer need. For some consumers, they just need that "uninstalled OS laptop with a win7 disc" for that psychological or commerce-based assurance, and the economics of wants and those who can render that service, will be the one who earns THAT consumer's service. For another person, it may be the ability to deal with a person who is very good at explaining, concerned about the consumer's needs, and provides near-instant customer support; while a third consumer may be "what's the bottom line?". That, is the beauty of the smaller dealers that work with a smaller Clevo / Sager (in this case, i'm saying Sager as the name-plopper for Clevo, and Sager is kinda small), is that ability to customize so greatly to a client's needs. And that is why I'll be coming back for seconds on Sagers.

My .02

Jason

 

Yes for sure. Contact your reseller for the latest bios package image and just burn it to a CD, then boot to it. It will go smoothly back to the Sager bios.
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I would contact your reseller specifically. Other users have independently reported that going back from Clevo -> Sager has the possibility of bricking your machine on the newer P150HM, P151HM1, and P170HM models. I would stick with Clevo from there going forward if you didn't want to risk it.

(see note in red at the bottom)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/416916-clevo-bios-thread.html

 

Yes please for Sager model owners stay with the Sager Bios. If you contact your reseller we can give you the latest release.

There should be no reason to install the Clevo standard bios.
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With the Battlefield 3 beta starting in 2 days (for those who preordered the limited edition) and the specs released - will the p150hm (with 485m) be able to max out B3?

EDIT: I just ran the "can you run it" test ( www.systemrequirementslab.com) and my machine made it just passed the minimum requirements... But I'm confused as when I view the area where it details what I am lacking in order meet the recommended requirements it says this:



It says the 485m doesn't meet the recommended requirements, yet it says it meets all the required features (required attributes) of a graphics card worthy of maxing out the game... So what am I missing? (Also note it states that my graphics card has 4gb vram when it only has 2gb dedicated video ram).

 

^^^^Have you tried a different driver? What driver are you using for your 485M? A driver change can make a big difference in this sort of thing.
_

 

I wouldn't worry about it. It's most likely that the tool doesn't recognize that graphics card model so it just fails by default. The 485m is similar in performance to somewhere between the desktop 460 or 560ti (closer to the former than the latter). That means you're close to the recommended levels, though not quite there.

 

I have the latest drivers for the gtx 485m from Nvidia. Edit: I just checked nvidia's site to make sure and it turns out there was an update a month ago which I wasn't aware of. I'm downloading the new driver update now (version 280.26).

So I went over to YouGamers: PC Game Reviews, Previews, News, Articles, System Requirements and the Game-o-Meter and ran the Battlefield 3 test there:



Here it indicates I passed the recommended requirements (with flying colours it seems) meaning that theoretically my machine should be able to max out the game. Did system requirements lab make a mistake?

PS: I'll be testing out B3 in open beta in 2 days

 

I wouldn't be surprised, the 485m is no slouch. As I said, I bet the first site probably maintains a list of cards that pass, and fails the rest. They don't actually take any benchmarks- rather, they compare features and data to a known list and peg the performance on that.

If Crysis doesn't bring this laptop to it's knees, I doubt Battlefield 3 will.

 

Well thanks for your assurances . I'm going to conclude that sysreqlab made a mistake; it says I have 4gb vram when I only have 2gb and it also says I have all the "required attributes" of a graphics card to pass recommended requirements - so I would side with your theory above.

Yes thats what I was hoping. After all I purchased this laptop with running B3 as one of my main priorities in mind and the best game to go on at the time was Crysis 2. My machine aces the requirements test for Crysis 2 on system requirements lab so I think I'll be fine .

 

Ganzonomy pointed out some good reasons, but it's really a small, tiny thing. It's easy enough to do another format without loading whatever OS was installed at all, but I get warm fuzzy feelings about starting with a pristine drive. Besides, that's one less big set of writes to a write limited SSD.

At any rate, I'm sure all the resellers here are great. I just had two with basically an identical price for the same end product and needed something to tip me one direction. Also, it does indicate a general attitude towards customer service, even if Malibal is thinking "this guys an idiot, what does it matter", they didn't tell me haha.

I'm sure Xoticpc has a good reason for wanting to do it the way they do. It likely would reduce their chances of a customer returning a product if they install the OS and can do various pre-ship tests first.

 

Hey.

Can I install some kind of BIOS security on this? So I can track it if it get stolen...

 

Thank you very much, i read it. Just do not understand - it is 100% certainty that the return clevo -> sager make brick, or - lucky \ not lucky? Maybe there is dependency - what does it happen? Are there others who successfully flashed back?

 

paladin answered your point a few threads up

 

Quick questions. Can I play a 3d game on my lap top if i have a 3d tv?
I want to be able to connect my lap top to the 3d tv and play deus ex human revolution in 3d...but my np8150 isnt a 3d computer. I hear i can use 3Dplay from nvidia. Is my sager compatible with it? What should i do to achieve this goal?
Thank you

 

Sorry, I thought he was asking a question; so I explained it further.

 

I can't say it's a certainty, as it doesn't happen to everyone. However, there is a decent chance that it will completely brick the machine. I just wouldn't risk it, and would suggest sticking with Clevo bios for your machine.

It depends on a couple of things. What graphics card is in your laptop? Did you want 3dVision or 3DTV Play?

For 3DVision:

Is your TV listed on the compatible displays here?

3D Vision System Requirements

It's not just a matter of your TV being 3D, it also has to support 120hz input (which a lot of them don't, even being 120hz displays). Do you have the 3D Vision kit including glasses and emitter?

For 3DTV Play:

Is your TV listed in this list?

3DTV System Requirements

Regardless of either one, you need a Nvidia card, supported display, and glasses/emitter (either with the TV or 3DVision kit)

 

Thanks, i understand you. If i would live closer to the manufacturer \ reseller - would risk, but i stay on clevo. Do i understand correctly, in the case of 'brick' - just only replace mb? Or i can flash\restore the bios at home?

 

^^^^Yes I guess it does depend on your situation.

If you have a Sager branded 8150, the head tech at Sager has said you could use the Sager image bios file and burn it to a CD, then boot to it and all should be good going from a Clevo to a Sager bios.
There are no guarantees in anything in this world if it will go perfect. However, Sager will stand behind these authentic bios upgrades. If you are under warranty you are covered.

Of course you could also stay with what you have in a Clevo bios, it is up to you...
_

 

I don't know if theses laptops come with a backup bios option like some of the desktops do. But if it does, you don't have to worry about anything bricking.

On a side note, I can now join you all on the ranks of owning an 8150.

 

are there any throttling issues with the 8150?

 

Nope. Not that I know of.